Tag Archives: review

A hint that this entry is going to be a long one so it’s best to have yourself armed with a cuppa at hand, lest you fall asleep.

I hadn’t been to the cinema for quite a while now to be honest, that I’ve conveniently forgot about the unspoken rule of choosing the right seating in the theater upon purchasing our tickets at the booth. So, besides having ourselves kick back and relax, indulged in the whole cinematic experience of it all, I for one had to endure another kind of experience… learning to tune out the sound effects of an affectionate couple sitting next to me. Go figure.

On with the movies.

Watched this with PY the big kid. Dr Seuss’s Horton hears a Who is surprisingly tasteful for my liking. A bit dry in the beginning with the whole Horton hoo-ha of suspecting what may be a community that lives on a speck of dust, which turned out to be true and off Horton goes on a noble rescue mission to save the err… speck. Horton’s an elephant btw (voiceover by Jim Carrey), and come to think of it, everything that goes in the Jungle of Nool doesn’t tally with common sense (supposed animated characters don’t have to make sense anyway) but if you’ve read the book, you know the rest of the story already yeah?

PY said this was as close to the original as it can get, laughable but no lame punch lines… worth a nod on that. Umm, confession. I never really read any of Dr Seuss’ books before *shame shame*, but this one made me teary-eyed towards the end of the movie. I’d try to hold it in but the scene was just all too touching at the right places! I’m moved by Dr Seuss’s intellectual behind it, you know, what it means for kids to acknowledged their value as an individual and one who inspires the other, all that lesson told without being too in-your-face. Good one in my opinion, second after Ratatouille. And PS: To all young girls out there… *sing song voice* Jesse McCartney is ‘in’ the movie too hehe~~ Too bad he’d only gets to sing and that’s all he ever does.

Rating: 3.5/5

Last Saturday, dragged LD along with me to watch Ben Affleck’s much anticipated Gone Baby Gone. The movie premiered in the U.S. late last year, and no doubt we owed our thanks to the censorship board for the delay. Read the book prior to the screening, so there wasn’t anything left for surprise other than wondering how it would’ve looked like in the script. Dennis Lehane’s Gone Baby Gone was Ben Affleck’s favourite book I’ve heard, made it as his directional debut along with his younger brother Casey Affleck who’d acted in his film.

And the movie was just so so and fell below average my expectation. I don’t know, probably because I have a problem picturing myself in the film than the book, never born and raised anywhere near the setting location in Boston, or nowhere in the U.S. as matter of fact. Some geographical conflict I must say. I need a solid grasp to feel what it was like to live in a washed out urban neighborhood where drugs and booze a likely favourite past time to the locals. But that’s the questioning point in the story I believed; where you’re coming from makes up the whole person you are in the society, but in ultimate sense, does it?

One thing is much the obvious. I thought they’ve downplayed most of the supporting casts involved, in what otherwise would’ve been as characteristically refined as what the book has to offer. Patrick Kenzie’s detective partner Angie Gennaro (Sandra Bullock look-a-like Michelle Monaghan) for example, is severely neglected. Perhaps the reason being is that this is Kenzie’s side of the story after all, much easier for us to just get down to business with Casey Affleck’s role as who else but Kenzie to take up the one-man detective job, figure out the missing child, sorting through his demons, the conflict he dealt with people around him who have it wrong for all the right reasons.

He gets the spot light all right, but his scruffy voice didn’t seem to cut it as an intelligible narrator for a start. Or could it be that that was deliberated from the very beginning of the script?

The climax was expected, provided the audience is attentive enough to capture the flow of the story, the plot of it. LD who didn’t read the book said the ending was just that, an ending. Monotonous all the way, so to speak. Not that the censorship helps, you get cut scenes every now and then whenever a particular word is uttered. Jackass seems to be an exception though.

Wise thing to do is, go either for the book or movie, never both. And if you asked me, I’ll have the paperback anytime, at least while I’m in Malaysia. No hard feelings to Ben Affleck. He’s a great actor/director/producer/whatever guy altogether but Dennis Lehane is more of my cup of tea. OK, so I’m just being biased all this while, aren’t I?